Premium
What does the DIT measure?
Author(s) -
Thoma Stephen,
Barnett Robert,
Rest James,
Narvaez Darcia
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1348/014466699164068
Subject(s) - defining issues test , psychology , social psychology , test (biology) , set (abstract data type) , interpretation (philosophy) , politics , measure (data warehouse) , external validity , identity (music) , epistemology , cognitive psychology , moral reasoning , political science , law , aesthetics , computer science , database , paleontology , philosophy , biology , programming language
Emler, Palmer‐Canton & St. James (1998) suggest that scores on the Defining Issues Test (DIT) of moral judgment development are in large measure a reflection of participants political identities. Although we agree that political reasoning and moral judgments overlap, we do take issue with the claim that DIT scores and the findings they produce can be explained by political identity. In three sections we first outline our view of the controversy that this, and the senior author's previous paper, raise concerning the validity of the DIT, then we note our interpretation of the current findings, and finally we draw attention to the limitations of the test manipulation methodology featured in this research and offer an alternative strategy to assess the validity of the DIT. We conclude that, although this research clearly demonstrates that DIT scores can be manipulated by altering the participant's test taking set, it provides no direct evidence on the validity of the DIT.